Exhibition: Threshold
An exhibition showcasing the unique typography designs of sophomore design students at the South Carolina School of the Arts.
This past April, the sophomore graphic design cohort presented their work through a gallery exhibition. Titled Threshold, the show featured each student’s bespoke typeface design along with printed and produced artifacts to supplement the experience.
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Upon entering the gallery, attendees were met with posters and a slideshow highlighting the cohort and their individual signatures. After collecting different ephemera — keychains, buttons, stickers, and “yearbooks” detailing the class members and their work — the audience filtered into the gallery space, which held posters of typographic specimens. Each poster included a description of the typeface in addition to examples of its usage and application.
For the show, the students were tasked with finding a real-world example in need of a bespoke typeface. Designing for a variety of needs, from ice cream stores to album covers to barber shops, the class spent weeks crafting each letterform for their respective clients, refining each detail until a full typographic set was created.
The cohort created their exhibit over the course of the project, organizing teams across branding, production, and installation. Whether through a studio-lit photoshoot of the class or casual “Day in the Life” vlogs posted to their show’s Instagram, each aspect of the Threshold’s preparation and presentation emphasized the exhibit’s theme of stepping into new spaces and growing in confidence in design work.
Some examples from this year’s cohort:
Janice Slab
by Beck Bowen
Bombus
by Ruth Snyder
Whippy Dip
by Jack Lilly
